


the lights are off and the store is closed

by noahfronsenburg



Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Gen, Resistance Through Theft, Smoking, World of Ruin, could be shippy if u want
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-04
Updated: 2018-04-04
Packaged: 2019-04-18 10:56:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 627
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14211636
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/noahfronsenburg/pseuds/noahfronsenburg
Summary: “Smoke, kid?” Aranea offered Iris the pack of cigarettes from her pocket, like she did every time they were up here.Like every time, Iris replied “No thanks.”





	the lights are off and the store is closed

**Author's Note:**

  * For [hanarsweater](https://archiveofourown.org/users/hanarsweater/gifts).



> req for shelton

At whatever they arbitrarily call “night-time” all of Lestallum goes dark, except for the perimeter floodlights, keeping the daemons out, and the streetlights inside, every other one. All the apartments, the stores, the businesses go dark. The meteorshards burn slowly, but eventually, they’re going to run out of fuel, and that’ll be the end for all of them. So conserving it is a priority.

But there was still enough light to move around, if you needed to. Iris often couldn’t sleep—her body hadn’t adjusted to the loss of a day/night cycle well, and she was plagued by insomnia. Just like a lot of other people were. So, on nights like these, where she couldn’t sleep, she would climb up to the roof of her apartment building and sit there and stare into the big, empty night. She’d imagine, sometimes, she could still see the stars and constellations, the moon hanging wide and clear in the sky.

There were kids living in the world now who had never seen the stars. Never seen the sun. Which was pretty super fucked up.

Footsteps came behind her, and a grunt as someone else climbed up onto the roof. The light pollution was basically nonexistent, since it was already so dark, and it took a minute for Iris’ eyes to adjust to see that it was Aranea scrambling up from the fire escape. She’d shed her armor, and she scuffed over to sit down next to Iris in only sweats. She was a little out of breath, beaded in sweat, her hair matted. She’d been working out in her apartment again, trying to burn off her excess energy.

“Smoke, kid?” Aranea offered Iris the pack of cigarettes from her pocket, like she did every time they were up here.

Like every time, Iris replied “No thanks.”

“More for me,” Aranea said, completing their ritual, as she settled in, her feet hanging off of the edge of the roof as she pulled out her lighter, flicked it until she got a flame, and started smoking. It had used to bother Iris, but now this one ritual was soothing, the scent of the cigarette smoke, even as it burned her lungs and throat, another reminder that there had been a lifetime before this one.

They sat in companionable silence as Aranea smoked and Iris picked at a scab on her knee, staring out into the darkness of Lucis. She could see the glow of Hammerhead in the distance, a little bright island in a world of shadow, and that was a little reminder of the old world, too. Neither of them talked until Aranea stubbed out her cigarette, and then she sighed, exhaling a cloud of smoke she’d held in her lungs.

“You got any assignments?”

“Cor doesn’t want me going out until that strained tendon is healed,” Iris replied. “But in another few days I should be good. Why?”

“I’m thinking of doing a supply run out to one of the bases we haven’t emptied yet. I think there might be some old power cells we could swipe for generators on the road, since it looks like the boy wonder isn’t going to be showing up anytime soon. You want to come with?”

Iris hesitated. Cor had wanted her to head back to Insomnia, help the Glaive out with another small daemon cell they’d found. She chewed on her lower lip.

“Yeah,” she said. “Why not? Could be fun.”

“That,” Aranea laughed, “Is the shit I like to hear. Come on, let’s go rob Ardyn blind.”

Iris grinned. It was the little things that made life still worth living. Like pissing off an eternal immortal who still needed to be able to keep his lights on. Daemonify _that_ lightbulb, asshole.

**Author's Note:**

> tumblr/twitter @jonphaedrus


End file.
